Field of Disclosure
The present disclosure generally relates to protocol conversion in an electronic system and including a protocol conversion of an input data stream that is formatted according to a first wired communication protocol to provide an output data stream that is formatted according to a second wired communication protocol.
Related Art
A cellular network, also referred to as a mobile network, represents a radio network distributed over various geographic areas called cells, each cell being served by at least one base station or access point. The base station provides cellular communication to one or more mobile communication devices, such as one or more cellular phones to provide an example, within its geographic area of coverage. The base station can provide coverage over a wide geographic area, such as a few kilometers, to form a macrocell or coverage over smaller geographic areas to form a small cell, such as microcell which is less than two kilometers wide, a picocell which is 200 meters or less wide, or a femotcell which is on the order of 10 meters. The base station typically includes one or more outdoor units (ODUs), each including one or more radio units, which are positioned at a physically high point of a cellular tower or other structure for communication with the one or more mobile communication devices. The one or more ODUs are electrically connected to an indoor unit (IDU), which includes a baseband processor, for processing of signals communicated between the base station and the one or more mobile communication devices.
In the base station, the baseband processor and the one or more radio units communicate with one another via one or more communication link interfaces. For example, the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) provides a standardization for the one or more communication link interfaces to connect Radio Equipment Control (REC), such as the baseband processor to provide an example, and Radio Equipment (RE), such as the one or more radio units to provide an example. The CPRI is described in detail in “Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI)—Interface Specification, Version 6.0,” published Aug. 30, 2013, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. Alternatively, the one or more communication link interfaces may be established utilizing the Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI). OBSAI is described in detail in “Open Base Station Architecture Initiative—BTS System Reference Document, Version 2.0,” and “Open Base Station Architecture Initiative—Reference Point 4 Specification, Version 1.1,” both of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.